February 2016 - The Stroke Association

The Donate a Day charity chosen for February 2016 is The Stroke Association.

This UK charity has an immediate relevance to me. My mother had a stroke in early February this year and is currently (as I write this) in hospital recovering from this. She seems to have been lucky and the long term effects seem to be limited. There will be some impact, but many people suffer much more from strokes.

The Stroke Association provides a lot of information that is very useful to sufferers and their carers and families. Many of the websites I have recently visited to find out more information about my mother's condition are either directly provided by this organisation, or reference The Stroke Association's guides and information leaflets.

January 2016 - Compassion in World Farming

The Donate a Day charity for January is Compassion in World Farming.

This is a charity that I have long supported. I became a vegetarian over 30 years ago not because I felt we should not be eating animals at all, but because I felt we did not treat them with the respect they deserve. I am not against animal farming, I am very much against the poor treatment that animals get under many modern farming methods. Human economics has completely destroyed morality and ethics when it comes to our treatment of animals for food.

Compassion in World Farming echoes my sentiments very well. Getting humanity to all give up eating meat is not an achievable aim. Getting humanity to give more respect towards animals is achievable. We have come a long way, not least because of charities like CIWF who highlight the practices behind much of our food industries. Raising awareness is the first step, and a very important one.

December 2015 - Contact the Elderly

The chosen charity for December 2015 is, once again, Contact the Elderly.

Although I try to choose new charities each month to donate to, with Christmas coming up we are reminded of the loneliness of some elderly people (a reminder that has also been nudged by this year's John Lewis advert!), and Contact the Elderly is a nice, small charity that actively helps lonely older people by arranging regular tea 'parties' and gatherings.

I donated to this charity in May 2014. It's about time they got a little more money from me for their good work. It also happens to be their 50th anniversary this year.

Supported by a network of volunteers, Contact the Elderly organises monthly Sunday afternoon tea parties for small groups of older people aged 75 and over, who live alone, offering a regular and vital friendship link every month.

November 2015 - Moor House School, Surrey

The Donate a Day charity for November 2015 is Moor House School in Hurst Green, where I live.

This school specialises in the education of children and young people with speech and language difficulties.

Introduction to Moor HouseMoor House provides specialist schooling and therapy for children with speech and language difficulties and draws upon over 60 years of experience. The school was believed to be the first of it’s kind, has provided inspiration for other schools internationally, and continues to lead in areas of specialist education, therapy and research. Moor House shares it’s expertise and research findings to support children in the wider community.

October 2015 - Monkey World, Dorset UK

The chosen charity for Donate a Day in October 2015 is Monkey World Ape Rescue centre in Dorset, England.

Monkey World assists governments around the world to stop the smuggling of primates from the wild.

At the Centre, refugees of this illegal trade as well as those that have suffered abuse or neglect are rehabilitated into natural living groups.

September 2015 - Asian Turtle Program

The chosen charity for September 2015 is the Turtle Conservation Centre in Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam, which is part of the Asian Turtle Program.

I was looking through some old documents the other day and found a spreadsheet containing loads of stuff from our travels in Asia in 2010. Included in this were some notes on charities that we would like to donate to, relating to things we had seen. Most of these we have already donated to, but I realised we hadn't yet given to the Turtle Conservation Centre.

http://www.asianturtleprogram.org/index.html

Whilst in Vietnam we spent a couple of nights in the middle of a national park, Cuc Phuong. The park was lovely, the hut we stayed in was basic, and a day trip to a conservation centre that had apes and monkeys in one part, and turtles in another. Both were very good, and the turtle centre had an excellent research and conservation program. Despite the fact that they probably don't receive all that many visitors (we were the only ones there at the time), the place was very welcoming and well presented.

http://www.asianturtleprogram.org/tcc-home-page.html

http://www.cucphuongtourism.com/

Turtles are not very well looked after in Asia. They are regularly kept in monasteries, restaurants and even homes, and usually many tens or even hundreds are kept in the same small ponds. It's good to see places that strive to help them.

August 2015 - The Born Free Foundation

The chosen charity for August 2015 is the Born Free Foundation. My original intention was to donate to Care For The Wild International, but this year they merged with the Born Free Foundation, and are now under the single banner.

The merger seems a sensible idea - they have very similar goals, are both based in Horsham and have had close links in the past.

I first came across Care for the Wild International while travelling. We were looking into the local wildlife 'attractions' to visit when in Thailand (Kanchanaburi, to be exact, on the river Kwai), and came across the Tiger Temple, which is a very popular attraction with tourists.

Before deciding to visit it, we did some research on how much of a 'sanctuary' is was for the tigers, and what its animal care credentials were, and came across the Care for the Wild report into the temple:

http://www.careforthewild.com/what-we-do/campaigns/previous-campaigns/tiger-temple-the-truth/

Which effectively says "don't go there!" as the tigers are very poorly treated and even drugged in order to make them docile for the tourists.

Of course, I didn't just take the report on face value - but it made me do some more investigations and digging online and what I found backed up the findings in the report.

We didn't visit the temple.

It's work like this that directly helps people make ethical decisions while on holiday.

Of course, both charities do excellent work in other areas, but it is good to support one that we have had some direct contact with, however tenuous!

Now I must go back and watch the Born Free film again.....